The Invention Of The Radio

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The Invention of the Radio Technology, Society and Culture HUMN 432_Online In his book, To Light Such a Candle, Keith Laidler provides a history of inventors and technologies. In his book, he explains how Guglielmo Marconi, Marchese, an Italian physicist is credited with the invention of the radio. Laidler, goes on to explain how Marconi’s invention was preceded by the great technological successes of James Clerk Maxwell, Oliver Lodge, Heinrich Hertz and Samuel Morse whose inventions aided Marconi in the development of the radio (Laidler, 1998). James Clerk Maxwell developed the theory of electromagnetic radiation and wrote a paper about it in 1861 (Laidler, 1998, p.179). Oliver Lodge successfully demonstrated, in an experiment, in 1887 radio transmission of an electromagnetic wave from one location to another (Laidler, 1998, p.186). Hertz, however, is credited with furthering Maxwell’s theory by creating a continuous electrical wave, using wire and brass knobs as a receiver and an oscillator, which created electromagnetic waves (Rubin, 2009). Similarly, Samuel Morse, demonstrated Joseph Henry’s theories of the electric telegraph in 1835 by creating signals of pulsing current that could be sent via wire (The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Science , 2004 p. 3191). These technological milestones helped lead to the development of radio. Gregory Benford explains how, Marconi’s interest in developing the radio was sparked somewhat by accident, in his article Scientist Heroes: Fantasy & Science. While on vacation in 1895, Marconi read the obituary of Heinrich Hertz, which was written by a family friend, Augusto Righi (Benford, 1996, p. 102). The obituary discussed Heinrich Hertz and James Clerk Maxwell’s theories and experiments with electric and magnetic waves (Benford, 1996,). Marconi was interested in Hertz’s
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